How did they get this shot? Snowboarding...

w00t

Hey everyone! Long time lurker, 1st time poster.

This photo is a great example of work I've seen done in various sporting events (basketball/golf/etc). I've always wondered how did they obtain these finished images like this?

Obviously taking the pics in very high speed and then I would imagine offline editing in photoshop or other program?

HELP! A howto or tutorial on this would be fantastic. I don't even know what to call this "genre" of photograph is called? Not time lapse..??

http://green.smugmug.com/photos/262058567_8WwJm-L.jpg

http://glennkasin.smugmug.com/photos/129724353_ewM4c-L.jpg

** Mod edit. Please only post your own photos. We welcome people posting links as i have done with the photos you asked about.

jfriend

w00t wrote:

Hey everyone! Long time lurker, 1st time poster.

This photo is a great example of work I've seen done in various sporting events (basketball/golf/etc). I've always wondered how did they obtain these finished images like this?

Obviously taking the pics in very high speed and then I would imagine offline editing in photoshop or other program?

HELP! A howto or tutorial on this would be fantastic. I don't even know what to call this "genre" of photograph is called? Not time lapse..??

Camera on tripod so it doesn't move. Preset the exposure and focus so neither changes. Take rapid fire images as the snowboarder goes through the air. The secret to the sequence is to get the images spaced appropriately (not too close together and not too far apart).

Then, stack all the pictures on top of one another as layers in Photoshop. Create a mask on every layer except the bottom one and fill those masks with black. At this point you will only see the bottom image showing through everything since the masks are blocking all the other layers. Then, image by image starting with the 2nd from the bottom layer, paint white on the mask over the snowboarder to let that layer's snowboarder image show through. You don't have to be precise because the background is the same in every shot. You just have to show all of the snowboarder and not paint over anything that would obscure the snowboarders you want from the layers below. Repeat for each layer until you've done the last one on top.

If you record the image properly, the Photoshop part is very easy once you understand what you're doing and there's no fine-art technique that's hard to learn.

eccentriclens

This type of shot is called a sequence and jfriend basically just gave you the whole tutorial. I couldn't have said it better. Heres a couple photos I took back in September at Bear mountain for their annual event Hot Dawgs and handrails. unfortunately I wasn't using a tripod so I had to do a little more work to align the shots. It's also the reason the sky is different shades in some spots.






Also if you guys have any C&C for better or for worse I'm happy to hear them.

Icebear

eccentriclens wrote:

unfortunately I wasn't using a tripod so I had to do a little more work to align the shots. It's also the reason the sky is different shades in some spots.

Also if you guys have any C&C for better or for worse I'm happy to hear them.

If you aren't shooting from a tripod, You have to be much more precise selecting just the image you want to overlay. It will not register automatically, so you have to place it after you select it and remove the background. Quite frankly, you weren't very careful. Instead of just erasing the background of the overlying shots, you should select the snowboarder, using your favorite tool, and then move him/her around 'till you get it in just the right position.

Like I did with the motorcycle in the following image, which was also hand-held (and which has been posted on DGrin before).

eccentriclens

Icebear wrote:

If you aren't shooting from a tripod, You have to be much more precise selecting just the image you want to overlay. It will not register automatically, so you have to place it after you select it and remove the background. Quite frankly, you weren't very careful. Instead of just erasing the background of the overlying shots, you should select the snowboarder, using your favorite tool, and then move him/her around 'till you get it in just the right position.

Your image didn't work. can you please repost it.

I shot these with a fisheye so i had to resize and align everything manually.

starky987

Did you take these using the burst mode? My camera only does 3 shots/second and without actually trying, that doesn't seem like its fast enough to capture someone going over a jump. Also do you shoot in AI servo or what settings to maintain a sharp image. Any suggestions are welcome. THanks.

beetle8

I call it a series but same dif I guess.
My only change to the tute would be to choose your background shot make a selection of the subjects on the other shots and just copy and place the subject onto the background then mask it, there is no need to have the entire image there being masked,

This one was handheld.



This one was on a tripod



The fps will vary on the sport these are 5 fps
you have to have everything set manually.